who reported to me by your order at this time. I reached Memphis on February 1, and had engaged an engineer for the Ashton levee, when I received your telegram of February 1, directing me to await orders in Memphis. This I did until February 6, when, having received permission to do so, I started for the steamer Flora, leaving my engineer, Mr. Gloster, to bring me your final orders, which, dated February 20, reached me on February 24, directing me to discontinue all preparations to repair the levees, but to continue the examinations. I accordingly at once broke up the party at Bolivar Bend. Mr. Gloster had joined the Flora on February 22, thus giving me two engineers and two assistants, with the necessary rodmen, &c. With this party I continued the surveys actively until March 15, when the river prevented further work. I started for Memphis, stopping at all important localities to make inquiries, and arrived on March 20. I found Captain Mackenzie awaiting me with funds, and at once discharged the Flora and all the party not required to complete the maps and estimates. I transmit the following named maps and profiles, the results of the surveys : 1 sheet, localities of breaks in Bolivar and Choctaw Bends. Scales 1: 6000, 1:2400, 1:1200. 1 sheet, Indian Point, Bolivar County, Mississippi. Scale 1: 12,000. 3 sheets, breaks in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Scale 1: 12,000. 1 sheet, map and profile of wash from Sunflower Landing to Hushpuckana. Scale 1:2000. Profile, breaks in Bolivar and Choctaw Bends, showing located levee. Profile, Nibblet's to Hibbard's by river. Profile, Nibblet's to Hibbard's by Vermillion Lake route. Profile, Starke's to Prentiss by Swan Lake route. Profile, trial lines near Prentiss. Profile, Grant's to Old Port Royal, east of Hushpuckana. Profile, Grant's to old levee west of Hushpuckana. Profile, Robson's Landing to Delta, along old levee. Profile, Robson's to Totten's through Swamp, to connect with levee east of Hushpuckana. Profile, McCloud to Wimbush's through Swamp, to connect with levee east of Hushpuckana. Profile, trial lines from Grant's with sections of bayous. These maps and profiles show the results of 86.7 miles of compass and 82.7 miles of level surveys, and are in such detail as to render no long written description of the routes necessary. The following are the levee estimates. For convenience of comparison the width of crown is assumed at 6 feet, with slopes of 3 to 1 and 2 to 1, except for crossing bayou Hushpuckana, where the crown is 10 feet, with slopes of 4 to 1 and 24 to 1. BOLIVAR AND CHOCTAW BENDS. Eastin levee.-Levee about 8 feet high and 1,500 feet back from river; cubic contents, 69,000 yards. Location through old field with favorable soil, except one slough where woods extend about 400 feet. Vick and Yerger.-Two hoops, one 27,000 cubic yards, the other 8,000 cubic yards. Average height of levee, 8 feet; distance back from river, about 300 feet; location through old field. It is to be remarked that the entire levee in Bolivar Bend is very near the river, and that the banks are caving so rapidly as to render it certain that a new levee must soon be built. The above locations are only designed for this crop. Next year quite a different line will be needful. INDIAN POINT LEVEE. A cut-off occurred at Napoleon on March 11, 1863. The result has been to form a large sand-bar in front of Napoleon and to rapidly erode the opposite point. To decide the proper location for a levee to close this break, extensive surveys have been made. There are three principal routes: 1st. River bank.-This can only serve a very temporary purpose, for the location shown on the map is as far from the river as it can be made without crossing deep sloughs, and the levee, if built on it, must soon cave into the river. Between January 22 and February 26, '66, 400 feet caved off from the exposed end of the old levee, at the upper end of the break. The estimates are as follows: Hoop for the Great cave. Wildwood break.. Smaller breaks.. Total.. Cubic yards. 113,000 10,000 8,700 131,700 The soil throughout is very favorable for working. 2d. Vermillion Lake route.-This route is entirely safe, and a small private levee was built upon it which was badly located on the very edge of the lake, and is now much washed. But little of it could be made useful. The route lies through old fields and deadened woods. The estimates are as follows: 3d. Swan Lake route.-This route is very favorable and saves about half of the 4,000 acres of cleared land and 11,000 acres of wild land thrown out by the Vermillion Lake route. The objection to it lies solely in the danger of its junction with the old levee at Prentiss caving into the river-a matter not easily decided at present. About a mile of the route lies through old field, the rest through cane and forest. The soil is favorable. Three northern terminal locations were surveyed, upon which the estimates are the following: (See map.) Route farthest from river Intermediate route... Route nearest to river Cubic yards. 125,000 115, 200 119,200 The foregoing cover all the breaks which, under your instructions, I felt called upon to survey in Bolivar County. The first serious break from the southern boundary of Coahoma County is that at Lewis Swamps, just above Grant's, on the old Crenshaw place. This offers peculiar difficulties. The river has been, and now is, very rapidly caving away its banks in this bend. It has approached so near to Bayou Hushpuckana as to force the levee either to cross the bayou or to pass through a low and difficult part of Lewis Swamps at great cost, and with the certainty of ultimately and at no very distant date caving into the river. I believe it to be inevitable in a few years, if not at present, that the levee cross the bayou. When this is done, it can only return to the river near Wilkinson's Landing, or strike old river near Old Port Royal, unless a better route to Robson's can be discovered than that surveyed by me. Anticipating this necessity, certain gentlemen have built nearly five miles of levee on the east bank of Hushpuckana. The Robson route throws out 1,500 acres of arable land; the Wilkinson route 4,500 acres arable land now cleared. The maps show the character of the different proposed routes. That west of Hushpuckana passes through old deadened woods, cane, and low, unstable swamp. That east of the bayou chiefly through old field and deadened woods, with some forest and heavy cane near its northern extremity. The matter of draining Hushpuckana is quite a serious one. If it be crossed on the located line, a deep wash from Sunflower Landing back to the bayou might be enlarged and extended quite to the river. This would, however, cause a general overflow of the low swamp when the Mississippi passed much above mid-stage. For on February 6, when the river stood 9 feet below high-water 1865, the water of the bayou was 19 feet below the level of the river. To cross the bayou again below Wimbush's would certainly cause an extensive rain-water lake, which, being dammed up by the levee, would render an extravagant cross-section through the low lands necessary. At Wimbush's, Harris Bayou would afford channel-way, perhaps, with some clearing out and enlarging, for the surplus water to Sunflower River. The Old Port Royal route avoids this difficulty by not recrossing the bayou. The following are the estimates upon the several routes surveyed, allowing 60,000 cubic yards for the levee already built east of Hushpuckana: Route west of Hushpuckana... Route east of Hushpuckana to Robson's. Route east of Hushpuckana to Wilkinson's Landing. Cubic yards. 190,000 637,000 611, 000 685,000 Should it be deemed advisable to incur the periodical flooding of the Lewis Swamp region by Mississippi water backed up through the artificial mouth at Sunflower Landing, rather than by the rain-water, the expense of any of the last three routes must be increased by the cost of excavating 10,000 cubic yards to open this wash to the river. (See special map and section of this wash.) If the break in the levee is not soon closed, it is very probable that this work will be done by the river itself, and a pass like the Yazoo Pass be formed, to the great detriment of the region below. Indeed, this threatened calamity is so imminent that the plan of operations at the locality calls for immediate decision and action. Above Lewis Swamp to Delta the breaks require no unusually extensive work. The following list is complete, and the amounts from actual survey: The following was the condition of the Yazoo Pass levee on December 28, 1865, the date of its examination: Two cuts had been made by the Navy, one at each end of the big levee, which, with these exceptions, was in good order. The north cut was 220 feet long, 40 feet deep, and 230 feet long, 20 feet deep, say 80,000 cubic yards. The south cut was 420 feet long, 21 feet deep, say 50,000 cubic yards. Total, 130,000 cubic yards. The facilities for obtaining dirt were poor, an average haul of 200 yards being required. This fact and the great depth of the northern break (and the consequent liability to damage from the sudden rise of the Mississippi during the progress of the work) will render the cost of repairing this levee greater than the average. In the estimates the following are the dimensions: Crown, ten feet; slopes, 5 to 1 and 2 to 1. The above is a summary of all the actual surveys made by my parties. For full details, attention is respectfully invited to the accompanying maps and profiles. Every effort was made to obtain correct information as to the condition of the levees where actual surveys were not made. The following exhibits the results, beginning at Vicksburg and passing up the river to the Ohio on the left bank, and returning on the right bank. Issaquena County was considered to be excluded from the plan of operations, because its vicinity to the mouth of Yazoo River would prevent any extensive districts being benefited by repairs. One large break at Christmas's plantation, below Greenville, was visited by you in person. Other breaks exist, but no details were learned by me. Washington County is fortunate in possessing planters having the energy and ability to aid themselves. An official document from the board of levee commissioners states, under date of January 25, 1866, "that the only levee in said county which is not now in a condition to give the planters assurance of the necessary protection, is the one in Miller's Bend "estimated cost $41,000, at 38 cents per cubic yard, the contract price. In Bolivar and Coahoma Counties, as already stated, all the breaks were surveyed and have been already reported upon. In Tunica County no surveys were made, owing to the high stage of the river when the party had reached the vicinity. The following statement is from an official letter addressed to me by the sheriff and the president of the board of police, showing the breaks: From south county line to Nail's Bayou, (opposite Helena).. 2 miles of 8-foot levee. From Nail's Bayou to Mrs. O'Neal's.. From O'Neal's to Harbert.. From Harbert to Austin... From Austin to Commerce. From Commerce to north county line.. Total, correct in length, approximate in height...... 14 miles of 7-foot levee. 2 miles of 5-foot levee. 2 miles of 8-foot levee. Of mile of 12-foot levee. 1 mile of 9-foot levee. 8f miles. In De Soto County no official statement could be obtained, but the following is the estimate of the gentlemen to whom I was referred as best informed in the county: On Mississippi River front, one and a half miles 5-foot levee, occasionally 8 feet. On Horn Lake front, one mile 8-foot levee; two miles 5-foot levee. This completes all the levee estimates on this bank, as the high land approaches so near the river that no levee system has ever been attempted above the Memphis bluff. On the right bank, from Cape Girardeau to the Missouri State line, no very definite information was obtained, but as a portion of the levee fund is reported to remain unexpended, and as the levees themselves are said to be in a tolerable condition, and especially as nearly all the overflow. returns from points above at New Madrid, nothing would seem to be required to be done by the General Government in this section. From the State line to Osceola the only break reported was a small one at Bearfield Point. From Osceola to Memphis the following list is approximately exact, and is complete: 1st. Mrs. McGavock, near Osceola, a small break. 2d. Le Ma's place, above Island 34, unleveed gap 30 yards long, 20 feet deep. 3d. Nodina place, bend of Island 34, unleveed gap 30 yards long, 30 feet deep. 4th. Morgans & Craighead's, below foot of Island 34, breaks 440 yards long, 5 feet deep. 5th. Pecan Point, foot of Island 35, unleveed bayou (Barney's) 30 yards long, 30 feet deep. 6th. Above Shawnee Village, high land in bend of Island 37, 3,500 yards long, 12 to 15 feet deep. 7th. Below Shawnee Village, high land in bend of Island 37, 5,300 yards long, 10 to 12 feet deep. 8th. Three miles below Shawnee Village, (Morris's Pacific place,) thirty miles above Memphis, 70 yards long, 40 feet deep. 9th. Fogleman's, seven miles above Memphis, 300 yards long, 12 to 15 feet deep. In Mississippi County, Arkansas, which extends from the Missouri line to a point about thirty-five miles above Memphis by river, a tax has very recently been levied of 10 cents per acre for levee purposes. There is also a project to construct a railroad from the bank of the Mississippi opposite Memphis upon ridges which run nearly parallel to the river, and about eight miles from its general course up to the vicinity of Osceola, and thence diverge to the westward across the bottom lands to connect with the Iron Mountain Railroad of Missouri. The road-bed is to be made to serve as a levee, which will thus reclaim immense tracts of valuable land. Its location will insure it against caving, the great cause of failure heretofore in reclaiming this region. Below Memphis the condition of the St. Francis front levee is very bad. Constructed in the first instance much too near the river, which in this part of its course is rapidly eroding its banks, (in Council Bend 1.5 miles in forty years,) subject near St. Francis River to overflow from the rear, which has even washed large parts of it into the river, and, above all, neglected for the past five or six years, the levee may be considered as practically worthless. To repair it would be more expensive than to construct a proper levee on a judiciously selected location. Indeed, for the lower part of the St. Francis front it is useless to attempt any levee system until the country above is reclaimed, owing to the destructive effect of the water returning to the river over the banks. In fine, then, it may be considered that for thirty miles below Memphis about one-half of the distance is leveed and the rest open, and chiefly in the bends, which would require much labor to levee, so as to connect the fragment still standing open near the points. From the end of this distance to the St. Francis River the bottom lands are open to the river. Between St. Francis River and Helena, a salient point of the levee has caved into the river. This is, however, a mere local matter. The bank at the mouth of this tributary is very rapidly caving. Between Helena and Old Town Ridge the following information is exact as to the breaks, being the result of measurements made by the levee commissioners: first break, 56,000 cubic yards; second and third breaks, 2,000 cubic yards; fourth break, 40,000 cubic yards; fifth break, 50,000 cubic yards. The repair of these breaks would reclaim a valuable district lying between the Mississippi and Crowley's Ridge and its spur, Old Town Ridge. It is, however, a local matter, no great area being affected. From Old Town Ridge to Carson's Landing, near Islands 67-8, there are several breaks reported, the one at Luna place originating in a caving bank, admitting a good deal of water. Thence to Laconia the levee is good; distance fifteen miles. The Luna bank is half a mile long; levee 12 feet high. At Laconia the planters have displayed a good deal of energy. They have repaired the State levee thence to Bob's Bayou, which enters the Mississippi two miles below Island 71, a distance of seven miles. They have connected these termini by a rear levee about eleven miles long, thus reclaiming about 15,000 acres of arable land. They have graded the levee three feet above high-water. This district exhibits every sign of activity, fences being repaired and land generally plowed. The amount of work done has been 45,058 cubic yards on the State levee, and 114,500 cubic yards on the rear levee, price 2 pounds of next crop of cotton per yard, estimated actual cost to contractors 35 to 37 cents per yard. From Bob's Bayou to Napoleon no levees have ever been built. From Napoleon to the northern boundary of Louisiana the following facts were collected by Bvt. Capt. A. McKenzie, United States Engineers, during a special trip made for the purpose: Just below Napoleon the river has badly eroded its banks, and the levee has caved into it. In Cypress Bend three to four miles have caved into the river. From Eunice to Gaines's Landing the levee is good. From Campbell's to Wallworth's one mile of 15-foot levee must be constructed. This break is just below Gaines's Landing. On the Walworth place, opposite Island 82, 50 yards of 7-foot levee is required. Just below, on Belleview place, (Dan. Sessions',) there is a break of one-half mile of 12-foot levee. Just below, on Pastoria place, one mile of 15-foot levee has caved into the river. The river is caving badly from the foot of Island 82 to the last-named break, and extensive repairs are required. From this break to Columbia the river is not caving. The next break is at the American Bend Cut-off, (Belle Point,) where one and a half miles of 12-foot levee have caved into the river. This break is known as "Ford's." From this point the breaks are frequent. The next is at head of Matthew's Bend; on Gosey's and Ross's fronts, where 100 yards of 12-foot levee are required. In Matthew's Bend, a fine levee, which cost $80,000 in gold in 1860, was cut for military purposes, there is now a gap 300 yards long, and a 17-foot leves required. (Another authority, 350 yards of 18 to 21 foot levee.) One and a half miles below, on Polk's Point, a mile of 12-foot levee (also cut) is needed. Portions of the old levee are still in existence. Just below Grand Lake is a break 300 yards long and 12 feet deep. (Another authority, one-fourth of a mile long, and 8 feet deep.) This resulted from a cut. On Flourney front a 7-foot levee has caved for one-fourth of a mile, and half a mile further down, on Ballard place, three-fourths of a mile of 7-foot levee is required. Within about a mile of the Louisiana State line there are three small breaks-aggregate about 500 yards of 12-foot levee. (Another authority, 600 yards.) In Louisiana there are three breaks near Ashton, at the State boundary; the first 850 feet long; the second 1,430 feet long; the third similar to the second. At all of them a 13-foot levee is required. They were under contract by the State, but I doubt if they were completed in season. The next was at Providence, where the Navy cut a canal back to the lake. This levee was, I suppose, finished before the river rose, as when I last saw it it was well advanced. The next break was at Bass's plantation, above Point Lookout, and was a large and serious one, damaging a great extent of country. The next one was at the Davis plantation, near foot of Island 97; the next at Harris's, above Terrapin Neck; the next at Duckport, near foot of Paw-Paw Island. Thence the levee was complete to the great Brown and Johnson break, just below Vicksburg. All the levees in Louisiana were under State contract, and, knowing that you had received full information concerning them from Major Porter, State engineer, I made no special effort to collect facts relating to those of them lying within my district. I made every effort to obtain all possible information relative to the river since the termination of the Mississippi-delta survey in 1861. The only high-water years were 1862 and 1865. The following table exhibits the data collected respecting these floods, as well as that of 1859. The same system is adopted as in the table on page 170 of the delta report; i. e., the plane of reference is the flood-level of 1858, the sign + indicating that the water rose above, and the sign that the water failed to attain, the level of that great flood. Asterisks denote possible uncertainty, although none is believed to exist. It is to be regretted that the war prevented the preservation of exact information as to dates and sources of these two floods. Remarks. +0.6 -0.5 -0.3* +0.7* -0.3* The following record at Cairo is from Mr. Aug. F. Taylor, of the Cairo City Company: High-water May 7, 1859, was -3.1; high-water April 24 and 25, 1861, was -6.4; high-water March 17 and 18, 1865, was-1.6; and on March 20, 1866, (highest of year to date,) was -8.3. Low-water on November 10 to 17, 1859, was -44.2; on October 12, 1860, was 46.0; and on December 4, 1865, was -42.9. The date of high-water 1862 was May 2. Foot Cat Island. Head Walnut Bend. Helena. -1.0+ +1.8 -0.2 Friar's Point. -0.7 +1.5 0.0 |